Using their dominance in the legislature, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP) on Tuesday forced the legislature's Procedure Committee to pass a draft amendment to Article 17 of the Referendum Law (
To protest the KMT and PFP legislators' attempt to expand the legislature's power, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) walked out of the committee meeting. Presidential Office officials said the draft would turn the "bird cage"referendum law into an "iron cage" law.
Proposed by KMT Legislator Kao Yu-jen (
The legislature has become a constitutional monster since the abolishment of the National Assembly. That is why the pan-green camp has moved several times to halve the number of legislative seats, yet the move has been blocked by pan-blue legislators.
With the KMT and the PFP trying to boost their power by placing all referendum powers in the hands of the legislature, they are openly trampling on Taiwan's democratic reform.
They claim they are proposing the amendment in order to highlight the illegality of President Chen Shui-bian's (
If, as the blue camp claims, Chen's defensive referendum really is a matter of campaign manipulation aimed at attracting votes by playing to voters' Taiwan awareness, then the blue camp's referendum plan is even more of an attempt at manipulation designed to win votes from Taipei and Keelung. The blue camp knows it is weak in southern Taiwan. Its leaders are therefore trying to establish a power base in northern Taiwan. They explain their campaign manipulation by saying that the integration referendum movement has been initiated by the public and thus is a legal referendum.
In view of the KMT's and the PFP's behavior, voters do not know what to say. Regardless, even the KMT-PFP alliance wants to launch a referendum. Although the referendum issues are different, and though they are proposed by different political camps, it shows that referendums have already become a constitutional mechanism widely accepted by both government and the opposition. This is a significant victory in the development of Taiwan's constitutional reform, and means that there is no turning back on the issue of referendums.
Regardless of whether voters support the integration of Taipei City, Taipei County, and Keelung City, we are pleased to see that the KMT and the PFP are proceeding with their plan in accordance with the Referendum Law. This newspaper's pro-referendum stance does not change as referendum initiators change.
Nevertheless, we have to alert readers and ask them to condemn the blue camp's hypocritical position on the referendum issue. On the one hand, they cook up charges against Chen's referendum. On the other hand, they plan to hold a referendum to attract votes. Let us hope readers can see through this.
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